Open up your eyes to 'Devo-Manc'

'Devo-manc' is part of the government's austerity agenda and its wider attack on the NHS.

We can't allow other hospitals to go the way of Trafford. Flickr/Nick Conneff. Some rights reserved.I’m a member of Tameside (Greater Manchester) Keep Our NHS Public and my local Patient Participation Group (PPG). In July I attended 6 meetings in one week connected to KONP. Over 40 years in Social Work I’ve worked in 9 hospitals, with people with disabilities and older people. Current Health and Social Care policies seriously concern me: hence all the meetings.

These meetings opened my eyes. The government is devolving a £6bn budget to the ‘Greater Manchester Combined Authority’ next April. All Greater Manchester Local Authorities and all Clinical Commissioning Groups must work together within this budget. They’re somehow expected to save money, reducing the use of hospital beds, following the government’s mantra of “paying off the deficit”.

I’ve seen NO open discussion locally about how ‘Integrated Care’ can work. Heavy cuts have been made to Local Authorities’ Adults Services' budgets, and are truly worrying. A 13 July Panorama programme ‘NHS: The Perfect Storm’ showed the ramifications of such cuts threatening care provision for the elderly in Liverpool. Samih Kalakeche, Liverpool Director of Adult Services and Health admitted “having sleepless nights” about this: his budget was cut by £100million.

The ‘Healthy
Liverpool’ programme involved Liverpool City Council and CCG in “an
all-out attack on unhealthy lifestyles combined witha massive shift of care and resources – from hospitals into the community, and a joining up of the NHS with other health
and social care services”. The new Liverpool Royal Hospital has fewer beds than
the hospital it replaces; fewer hospitals in Liverpool altogether are predicted.

Greater Manchester residents were denied
a vote on such massive changes. I saw the live-streamed CCGs meeting in
July select just four local hospitals to undertake certain future emergency surgery. A precursor to closing or further downgrading other hospitals, as at Trafford Hospital?

After introductions, our workshop groups had to devise ways to a) cut
A&E beds by at least 30%, and b) prevent people coming to A&E. One
nurse, still in uniform after work, could hardly keep her eyes open. This
‘consultation’ required full-time staff, on a winter evening, without relevant
training or experience, to reinvent wheels that have been running – and
developing – since 1948. Of course, all Devo Manc decisions had already been
taken; the views of the participants never mattered. I’d seen similar
performances at 2014 meetings called ‘Healthier Together’.

At
the Hyde Healthwatch and Dukinfield Care Together meetings in July I saw GPs,
seemingly programmed with questions for voluntary and independent sector reps –
with no medical training. Example: "What do you think should happen when
you arrive at A&E?"

And
‘Health and Wellbeing’? (Wasn’t it called Health Education – before its budget
was cut?). I’ve seen an H&W manager – straight-faced, asking volunteers to
use Facebook and Twitter to encourage friends to lose weight. She said it’s a
"waste of time talking about addressing the high level of social
deprivation in this area". Deprivation in Tameside is among the worst in
the country. Life
expectancy is between 10 and 15 years less than in London’s most affluent
areas. A southerner until 2001, this really distresses me. A waste of time?
This meeting did little to improve my blood pressure…

I’ve
seen NHS Mental Health staff, service users, carers and voluntary workers
spending their evenings at such meetings. I saw Stockport campaigners against
Mental Health cuts planning opposition to closure of local support centres:
services that save lives.

Our
newest young KONP member in Denton had scant knowledge of threats to the NHS. I
see my neighbour, paying for psychotherapy while waiting months for NHS
treatment (just as I did) when disabled by workplace pressures. Another KONP
newcomer from Stalybridge says:

"The NHS has never been more vulnerable… It’s
not right even in difficult financial times, seeking to turn the NHS into a
profit-driven enterprise. It was founded when the country was on its knees
financially. I believe recent and proposed changes are purely
ideological."

So I
urge fellow activists wanting the restoration of a truly public NHS to leave
your laptops and mobile phones, get outside – be heard and seen! I beg you all, let’s focus on action!
Underfunded community care cannot solve the gaps left by NHS cuts. Older people
need good access to experienced medical staff.

I have now
seen and learned enough to know: any further delay risks serious harm to our
health – and our NHS!

About the author

Barbara Dresner's Social Work career started in residential work with children with disabilities in 1973. She's mainly worked with adults since, based in a total of 9 hospitals, also community-based. A southerner most of her life, she now lives in Greater Manchester.

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